FUCKING CENSORSHIP COMMISSION.

Six Clear Channel-owned radio stations have been fined almost $500,000 for "obscenities" aired during Howard Stern's morning show.

Clear Channel suspended Stern in February from its six stations that carry his program, which regularly features graphic sexual discussion and humor. It decided to make the move permanent after the Federal Communications Commission cited the chain for 18 alleged violations from Stern's April 9, 2003, show.

"Mr. Stern's show has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it," said John Hogan, president of Clear Channel Radio. "The Congress and the FCC are even beginning to look at revoking station licenses. That's a risk we're just not willing to take."

In a statement posted on his Web site, Stern said he was not surprised by the fine. He characterized it as furtherance of a "witch hunt" against him by the Bush administration.

Stern didn't anything so bad as show people a female nipple for half a second, but he did make various sexual references and fart sounds. Whoops:

The FCC investigation was prompted by a listener in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who complained about a Stern program that included discussion of sex accompanied by flatulence sounds.

Federal law bars radio stations and over-the-air television channels from airing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children may be tuning in. The rules do not apply to cable and satellite channels or satellite radio.

This law apparently does not apply to sitcoms, dramas, reality shows, talk shows, commercials, infomercials, news broadcasts, cartoons or any radio station that ever played R. Kelly's "Bump n' Grind."

Most intriguing about this is that only Clear Channel stations were fined. Stern's show airs on hundreds of stations, but these six were the only ones hit. Clear Channel is a major GOP donor, and Stern has become increasingly anti-Bush of late. Clear Channel had already suspended broadcast of his show after The Tit That Roared, and now they have permanently dropped it. And by the way, John Ashcroft has decided to wage war on porn, including under that umbrella softcore programming such as HBO's Real Sex.

What the fuck kind of free fucking society are we living in?

Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra ::: 2004:04:08:20:03